Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Romney's International House of Pancakes

Folks, this Presidential candidate changes position in the space of a week (i.e. some of these links), but boy does he ever change over the course of a year. Last week, he was bitterly opposed to gay adoption - encouraging Catholic Charities to discriminate against gay parents - and now he's softened his tone?

The comments were softer in tone than those last week, when the governor said nothing about the legal basis for gay adoptions as he announced his plans to file the bill.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY'S moves to the right, as he explores a campaign for national office, have been well noted. But now, if he carries out his intention to file legislation exempting Catholic Charities from state discrimination laws, he will be taking a giant step backward -- 46 years backward.

Sadly, that's the whole goal of the cultural backlash. After the revolution in the 60s, when so much changed for the better, some people were angry. Progress continued, albeit at a slower pace. The whole time, a group of people longed for the so-called better days. Those people are now in power. They want to go back to the 40s and 50s, when women were at home and one salary often supported a family. It's an impossible goal, but they're trying their damned hardest.

If that were the end of it, it wouldn't be such a bad move. However, people forget about the horrors from that time period. Women were second class citizens, home alone all day cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids. Well, those were the lucky women. Even back then, most women worked; they were just paid a lot less. Abortions weren't easily available and horror stories ensued (they'll say women were perfect angels back then, but they'd be lying through their teeth). Unfortunately, my generation just can't relate to these stories. African Americans in the South couldn't vote, never mind have equal status. On the back of the bus they went.

When viewed from afar, what conservatives want doesn't look so bad. However, as we can see, it's the wrong direction for this country. Most conservative political leaders know it. Mitt Romney even knows it, yet that doesn't change the fact that he'll say and do what it takes to be elected. How do we know that? He was pro-choice and favored Civil Unions at one point in Massachusetts. However, the Mitt Romneys of the world can't win election without the conservative base - so the lies continue.

But lies aren't the end of it. Republicans also fight dirty. The whole Catholic Charities mess is a prime example of just how far conservative politicians will go to win. The Boston Globe makes the point better than I could,

It was in 1960 that John F. Kennedy confronted anti-Catholic bias in a famous speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Alliance. ''I believe in an America . . . where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source," he said. ''I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the Church does not speak for me."

This ringing embrace of church-state separation, confirmed by Kennedy's election, settled the issue once and for all, one hoped. Now Romney is out to turn it on its head.

Nearly a half-century ago, John Kennedy challenged bias against the Catholic Church. Now, Romney is defending bias from the Catholic Church. Romney works for all the people of Massachusetts. It is a shame to see him doing exactly what Kennedy forswore nearly a half-century ago: accepting instructions on public policy from the pope.

If only this were some small Republican exception, but it isn't. This is what George Bush did to help him win in '04; Romney is just following suit. The state house must reject any Mitt Romney bill and the public must reject Mitt Romney for the fraud that he is.

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